As mentioned in my Friday’s Feast, I embarked in another “culinary” endeavor this weekend. Ever since baking the Chocolate Revel Bars a month ago, I started feeling the need to bake again like I did back in high school. So now I’m easing myself into the baking slowly, partly because I don’t have time and partly because baked goodies means more flabs coming in. So I’m doing it one weekend at a time.
Last weekend I cooked some Coconut Macaroons which didn’t really turn out as yummy as I thought it would be (the almond extract made it taste too much like it had liquor in it), and Monday found me looking for recipes for an apple pie because it’s one of my dreams to bake a perfect apple pie (along with the perfect double layer chocolate cake). The recipe search brought me to this: Easy Apple Crisp. The recipe looked easy and a lot of people were raving about it in the website, so I copied it and was all set to make it for the weekend. :)
I modified the recipe a bit from the original one, based on the suggestions of the commenters. Here we go:
EASY APPLE CRISP
7 small apples – peeled, cored and sliced
1 cup water
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, melted
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a 9×13 inch baking dish.
- Arrange apples in an even layer in the baking dish. Sprinkle 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp nutmeg over apples.
- Put 1 tsp vanilla in 1 cup water and pour over apples.
- In a separate bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon and butter. Stir until well blended, mixture will be crumbly. Sprinkle mixture over apples, covering hem.
- Bake in oven for 50-55 minutes.
Serve warm or cold with whipped cream or ice cream. Makes 12 servings.
Some notes on this creation:
- The pre-baking mixture looks the same with the post-baked. The usual “stick a toothpick in the middle of the batter to see if it’s clean” or “wait until it is golden brown” is not applicable since the toothpick will not come out clean and the mixture on top does not turn into golden brown after. The difference between the baked and not baked product is that the apple has carmelized (is that the right term?) and you can see some goo on the sides from the heat when it’s baked. :) Slicing it through, you’ll see semi-translucent apples with lots of apple gooey-ness inside. Yum.
- This really tastes yummier with ice cream (see picture — sorry it’s blurry; Captain Tal took it. That’s cookies and cream flavored ice cream). Of course, it’s a lot sweeter, so if you plan to make this and serve with ice cream, lessen the sugar to 3/4 cup. Yes, putting ice cream or whipped cream on it, it’s just become a lot fattening. :P
- The one I made is quite thin, because I used a big pan to cook it. A smaller pan would make it thicker, or add more apples. :P
- Speaking of apples, I think different kinds of apples would give a different taste to this. Try using green apples or the big ones (is that Fuji apples?) to see how it would taste like.
- Other variations in the recipe include: putting lemon juice on apples, mixing oats with the flour mixture and sprinkling nuts on top.
Yes, it’s yummy! I’ll be serving it in our SFC household later. :) I’ll do some experimenting with it in the next few weeks when I have the chance to get some apples. Next up on the baking list: chocolate chip cookies! Yum. :9